The Worst
by mrsremusjohnlupin
Summary: In his Seventh Year at Hogwarts, Neville Longbottom takes over Dumbledore's Army. One night he is brought a friend in need of his help. Songfic for 'Broken' by Seether ft. Amy Lee. Written for the Hogwarts Olympics.


_'I wanted you to know that I love the way you laugh.'_

Her torn body was escorted inside the Room of Requirement by Ernie Macmillan and a young Ravenclaw boy. She was covered in blood and bruises and her feet were dragging across the floor, one curved at an odd angle.

At first, Neville thought she was dead.

When he rushed to help them lay her onto a small cot, however, and asked the room to give them more light to assess the damage, he knew she was alive. She was looking directly at him.

_"_Neville Longbottom," she whispered after he ordered the two boys to set up curtains similar to those in the Hospital Wing. Dumbledore's Army had them in the side of the room for a situation just like this.

Soft snores were heard from others sleeping in the room. How they could sleep through a night, Neville couldn't begin to understand. Maybe they were like him and only slept in intervals when pure exhaustion overtook them. The nightmares generally kept him awake. And the fear that someone would burst through the doors dragging a limp body.

His eyes grazed over her face, taking in her broken body. Someone had hit her with a curse to her side and her arm was badly burnt. Her face was also covered in bruises, caked in blood, and the bone in her left leg was missing. As his eyes once again found hers, he noticed the tears. "Hannah Abbot," he returned before nodding at Ernie as he enclosed the cot with the curtains. The Ravenclaw boy had left. "Macmillan, wake up Ginny Weasley, please. Tell her we need Skelegro. Also grab my bag from beside my hammock and bring it here. Then, go back to your House. The Carrows will probably run patrol soon."

Less than a minute later his bag was at his feet. The candlelight burning even brighter inside the curtains, Neville pulled out a small vial with purple liquid inside. He put it to Hannah's lips and tilted, making her drink until the potion was gone. Then he got out a small bag of nuts and leaves. He took out a leaf and pasted brown goo from a round container on one side before sticking it to her arm, where the large burn was.

_'I wanna hold you high and steal your pain.'_

She groaned and his eyes flicked to her face. "It's alright," he said, soothingly. He cast a spell that began cutting away the fabric of her school robes around her injures. Whatever curse had been cast on her had singed off most of the sleeve of her left arm, but Neville wanted to be precise. No need for mistakes. He continued the ritual of placing leaves gently on her wounded flesh. By the time he was completed with the monotonous task, Ginny had brought him the Skelegro.

He noticed the circles under her eyes. "Go back to bed, Ginny," he said. She opened her mouth to protest, but Neville shook his head. "You need sleep."

"So do you," she pointed out. But after a moment of hesitation she left, closing the curtain behind her. Neville stifled a yawn as he fed the bone-growth potion to Hannah. She squeezed her eyes shut tight and drank it all without complaint. Once the bottle was empty he began packing up the supplies he had taken out of his bag, careful to put them in the right spot.

_'The worst is over now and we can breathe again.'_

He asked the room to dim the lights. "Don't," she pleaded. Her fragile voice made him pause. "Don't go."

Neville had only stood to stretch his legs but at her words his heart seized. He stepped closer to the cot and looked into her eyes. A sparkling tear treaded down her cheek and he reached out, erasing it with his sleeve. From her uninjured side, her hand reached up and took his. In the dim candlelight her eyes twinkled with fresh tears.

"Don't worry, Hannah**.**" Neville gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. A slight blush crept up in his cheeks and he was glad for the lack of light. Not that he thought Hannah would even notice in her current state. "I'm not going anywhere."

In response a few more tears trickled down her face. He wished he had asked Ernie to also bring him a cloth and water so he could clean off some blood and have something to do with his hands. Now that all the work was done, he began to feel nervous in her presence. With nothing else to do, he wiped away her tears again. "Try and sleep."

_'There's so much left to learn and no one left to fight.'_

She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. "It hurts. When does it stop hurting?"

He was helpless to ease her physical pain. All he could do was make her feel better on the inside. Or at least try. "When it's over," he said. His eyes found the ground, then, and he frowned. The bag on the ground was open and he thought about the contents inside. One was a book. He reached down to search for it when Hannah let out a small whimper and released his hand. "I can read to you if you would like**.**" Neville paused, eyes searching her face.

Her eyes were closed. "Yes, please."

The old, overused Herb History book his grandmother gave him was the only one inside. It usually was. He placed the chair closer to the cot before asking the room for a blanket for Hannah. After laying it down over her legs and uninjured side, a grimace that he wished to be a smile flitted across her lips. Then he situated himself in the chair. It was then he noticed the eerie quiet. No one was snoring anymore. Everyone must have been awoken by the commotion.

Wondering if Hannah was the only one listening, Neville began, trying to keep his voice calm. Knowing that it was the only thing he could think of to help Hannah was what kept him reading. Snores soon replaced the quiet, however, and it became easier without an audience. Pausing occasionally to watch her steady, even breaths, he drawled on about known Herbologists and their personal histories or discoveries. It was a book he had read countless times but it had never felt more important than right then.

_'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome and I don't feel right when you're gone away.'_

* * *

Written for the _Hogwarts Olympics_ Challenge in Gymnastics; Rhythmic (songfic) to 'Broken' by Seether ft. Amy Lee.

Thanks to** BlueEyes444**, who was my Beta here.

_Stay classy fellow fans of Potter._ (:


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